Door-operating mechanism for gondola cars.



F. W. MARTIN.

DOOR OPERATING MEGHANI$M FOR GONDOLA CARS.

APPLIGATION FILED FEB.17, 1911.

Patented May 30, 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

1m: NuRRIs PETERS 00., wAsnmarmv, n c,

F. W. MARTIN. DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM FOR GONDOLA CARS.

APPLIOATION FILED 231317, 1911.

993,389 Patented May 30, 1911.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

THE NORRIS PETERS can wnsuuvcrau D c FREDERICK W. MARTIN, OF NEW YORK,N. Y.

DOOR-OPERATING MECHANISM FOR GONDOLA CARS.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 17, 1911.

Patented May 39, 1911.

Serial No. 609,105.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK W. MAR- TIN, of the borough of Manhattan,in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a certain newand useful Improvement in Door-Operating Mechanism for Gondola Cars, ofwhich improvement the following is a specification.

My invention relates to mechanism for effecting the opening and closureof the swinging doors controlling the bottom openings of so-called dropbottom gondola cars, and its object is to provide an appliance of suchcharacter which shall be simple and inexpensive in construction, andwhich, in operation, shall present the advantages of securely holdingthe doors in closed position by a positive and effective gravity lock,and of permitting their release and movement into full open positionwithout involving danger to the operator by sudden and rapid movement ofthe member which is manually operated to release them.

The improvement claimed is hereinafter fully set forth.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a plan or top View of aportion of a gondola car, illustrating an application of my invention;Fig. 2, a side View, in elevation, of my improved mechanism the partsbeing shown with the doors locked in closed position; Fig. 3, a similarview, showing the doors in open position; Fig. 4, a side view, inelevation, of the final locking means of the doors; and Fig. 5, atransverse section, on an enlarged scale, through the operating shaftand the pin of the crank thereon.

In the practice of my invention, the operating mechanism is preferably,as shown, located between and supported on the center sills, l, 1, of agondola car having bottom discharge openings, each of which is closed bya pair of oppositely swinging hinged doors, 8, 8. Links, 4, 4, arecoupled at their lower ends, by pivots, 4*, to the doors, 3, 3, andtheir upper ends are journaled on a pin, 4", upon the ends of which,adjacent to the links, are fixed rollers, 6, 6, which, when the doorsare closed, rest in segmental recesses or seats, 7 formed in curvedlocking brackets, 7 secured to the sills, 1, 1, over the clownwardlyextending faces of which the rollers traverse in the opening movement ofthe doors. A laterally extending arm, 4, is formed on one of the links,4, near its upper end, and is coupled, by a pin, 5 to one end rotated.

A sheave, 8, is journaled in bearings in the locking brackets, 7 and achain, 8 passes over said sheave, and is secured, at its end adjacentthereto, to a short link, 4 pivoted to the arm, 4, of one of the doorlinks, 4. The opposite end of the chain, 8, is secured to a drum, 8',fixed on the operating shaft, 9, around which drum, convolutions of thechain are wound, when the doors are in closed position. A short chain, 9is secured at one end to the crank, 9 and after being wound once aroundthe operating shaft, 9, its opposite end is secured thereto. A ratchetwheel, 10, is fixed upon the operating shaft, and rotation of the latteris prevented when the teeth of the ratchet wheel are engaged by apivoted pawl or latch, 11, which is held in engagement with the ratchetwheel by a swinging locking cam, 12, pivoted to the side of the car,above the ratchet wheel. A transverse supporting bar, 5", is secured tothe sills l, 1, below the connecting rod, 5, and between the operatingshaft and the adjacent door.

The operation of opening the doors to discharge the load is as follows.The locking cam, 12, is thrown up to the right; the pawl, 11, isdisengaged from the ratchet, 10; a crank or wrench is placed on thesquared end of the operating shaft, 9, outside of the car; and theoperating shaft is turned by the crank in the direction of the arrow,Fig. 2. This movement unwinds the chain,'8 from the drum, 8, and alsounwinds the short chain, 9*, from the operating shaft. In the continuedmovement of the operating shaft, the short chain, 9 will again winditself thereon, at which time, the door link chain, 8*, will becompletely unwound from the drum, 8*. As the movement of the operatingshaft is continued, the short chain, 9 becomes taut between its endconnections to the operating shaft and the crank, 9, re spectively, andthereby causes the crank to rotate with the shaft. When the doors are inclosed position, the crank, 9, is downwardly inclined, so that its pin,5*, stands below the center line of the operating shaft, as shown inFig. 2, and in the continued movement of the operating shaft, thecrankpin, 5 is raised above the center line of said shaft, and the connectingrod, 5, whichis coupled to said crank pin, moves the upper ends of thelinks, 4, 4 to the left, thereby releasing the rollers, 6, from theirseats, 7, in the locking brackets, 7, and permitting the doors, 3, 3, todrop into open position by their own gravity and that of the load in thecar bearing on them. By reason of the door chain, 8 having been unwoundfrom the drum, 8 the running out of the slack of said chain prevents themovement of the doors from exerting any sudden shock or strain on theoperating shaft and obviates any risk of injury to the operator. Whenthe doors are open, the supporting bar, 5, prevents the connecting rod,5, and crank, 9*, from dropping below the center line of the operatingshaft, and swinging to the right thereof which result, if permitted,would draw the rollers, 6, so far to the right as would prevent themfrom riding up over the curved surfaces of the locking brackets, 7, andthereby prevent the closing of the doors.

In order to close the doors, the operating shaft, 9, is rotated in theopposite direction, thereby raising the doors, through its connectiontherewith by the door chain, 8 and links, 4, 4, and causing the rollers,6, to ride up the surfaces of the locking members, 7 until they rest inthe seats, 7 the chain, 8 being, by the rotation of the operating shaft,wound upon the drum, 8 While the door chain, 8, is being wound up, theshort chain, 9 is first unwound from the operating shaft and thereafteragain wound thereon in the opposite direction, thereby becoming taut anddrawing the crank, 9 into the downwardly inclined locked position shownin Fig. 2. The supporting bar, 5, prevents the crank, 9 from being movedinto this position while the doors are being raised, which movement, ifit occurred, would pre vent the rollers, 6, from passing the left handends of the locking brackets, 7, and would consequently prevent theclosing of the doors.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a car door operating mechanism, the

combination of a gravity opening door, an.

operating shaft'journaled in fixed bearings on a car, a crank fitted toturn upon said shaft, a flexible connection wound upon said shaft andcoupling said crank thereto, a curved faced locking bracket fixed on thecar and having a seat at its top, a link coupled to the door and havinga roller on its opposite end adapted to travel over the face of thelocking bracket, a connecting rod coupled to said link and to theoperating shaft crank, and a flexible connection cou pled to said linkand to the operating shaft.

2. In a car door operating mechanism, the combination of a gravityopening door, an operating shaft journaled in fixed bearings on a car, acrank fitted to turn upon said shaft, a flexible connection wound uponsaid shaft and coupling said crank thereto, a curved faced lockingbracket fixed on the car and having a seat at its top, a link coupled tothe door and having a roller on its opposite end adapted to travel overthe face of the locking bracket, a connecting rod coupled to said linkand to the operating shaft crank, a transverse supportlng bar fixed tothe car below said connecting rod, and a flexible connection coupled tosaid link and to the operating shaft.

FREDERICK W. MARTIN.

Witnesses J. SNOWDEN BELL, C. L. WINEY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, I

Washington, D. C.

